Review Detail

Firstly, I'll place my cards on the table and say that I'm in the Hook camp rather than out of it, along with John Williams' beautiful score, it was the magical place to go to as a child way before films and names like Harry Potter even existed.

I was very happy that the beginning of Hook was sped up dramatically. I think the original lacks the impact because it revolves around Peter Banning's mundane life and you aren't really sure where the character is going at times. Although Maggie Smith is a legend and Wendy's adoption charity is an interesting development of Wendy's life, it's not really needed to be focused on much as you just want the film to move onto Neverland as soon as possible. Can I just say it has always been a bit odd to me that Peter Banning watches the Peter Pan play and has no idea it's about him? How? And why did Spielberg think it would a good idea to add the Peter Pan play in a film about Peter Pan for the sake a shelved musical song from a shelved musical? I'm still scratching my head about that now.

Anyway, I'll be completely upfront and say I don't think the deleted scenes really needed to be in this edit. The first deleted scene pretty much repeats or expands on making the audience (and plot-wise, the Lost Boys) realise Peter Banning is Peter Pan. It didn't necessarily have to be added. The second deleted take I noticed was Peter flipping over a wall. It looked a bit jarring compared with the rest of the quality and doesn't add much, but I can live with it.

I thought certain parts being removed from the film helped enormously, such as the Tinkerbell seduction scene...I have no idea where Spielberg was going with that. Maybe it gave poor old Julia Roberts something to do? She did seem to have a bit more presence in this edit though. But oddly, this edit keeps the "I have a plan" line from that scene around the 1 hour 20 minute mark. I'd have taken that out as it looks out of place.

I think it was right that Ruflo's dying line "I wish I had a dad like you" was cut since Rufio has only been reintroduced to Peter for 3 days and has spent that time training him. I think the writers were pushing on that emotional ploy a bit too much. Another line of dialogue I would have loved to have seen cut (but unfortunately wasn't) was the cheesy one liner "your playing with us, Peter", which occurs at the food fight scene. It makes me truly cringe inside with every muscle in my body and I'm surprised it doesn't with anyone else. And one last rant on Hook in general, why does Peter keep trusting Hook to stop attacking him? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice....but three times? I'm surprised something there wasn't changed in the edit. I've never understood the crocodile ending either, but there's no other footage to use and from a story perspective Peter Pan cannot kill Hook as it keeps Pan's childhood and innocence intact, even if Pan's character in Hook is an adult father defending his kids....

I was truly happy with just how well it came together like the cutting down of Jack's pirate baseball match and the sniffing genital flowers. The removal of Hook's "family friendly" suicidal scene and the tiresome "Rufioooooo" chants. Scenes like Maggie's song are cut to make the film flow better too, for better or worse, I'll let you decide. But I will try and defend that she tried her best to sing at the age of 7 without autotune or being professionally taught how to sing. They'd probably never include things like that in a family friendly film now. Hell, would they even represent a girl like Maggie in a family friendly film nowadays?

Overall the audio and visuals (apart from the deleted scenes obviously) were great. I really liked the artwork that came with the edit and it's definitely a much more fun film to watch. I'll definitely be keeping this edit as my preferred way to watch Hook in future.